This book begins with you working along as Scott Guthrie builds a complete ASP.NET MVC reference application. He begins NerdDinner by using the File->New Project menu command within Visual Studio to create a new ASP.NET MVC Application. You'll then incrementally add functionality and features. Along the way you’ll cover how to create a database, build a model layer with business rule validations, implement listing/details data browsing, provide CRUD (Create, Update, Delete) data form entry support, implement efficient data paging, reuse UI using master pages and partials, secure the application using authentication and authorization, use AJAX to deliver dynamic updates and interactive map support, and implement automated unit testing.
From there, the bulk of the rest of the book begins with the basic concepts around the model view controller pattern, including the little history and the state of the MVC on the web today. We'll then go into the ways that MVC is different from ASP.NET Web Forms. We'll explore the structure of a standard MVC application and see what you get out of the box. Next we dig deep into routing and see the role URLs play in your application. We'll deep dive into controllers and views and see what role the Ajax plays in your applications. The last third of the book focuses entirely on advanced techniques and extending the framework.
In some places, we assume that you're somewhat familiar with ASP.NET WebForms, at least peripherally. There are a lot of ASP.NET WebForms developers out there who are interested in ASP.NET MVC so there are a number of places in this book where we contrast the two technologies. Even if you're not already an ASP.NET developer, you might still find these sections interesting for context, as well as for your own edification as ASP.NET MVC may not be the web technology that you're looking for.
It’s worth noting, that ASP.NET MVC is not a replacement for ASP.NET Web Forms (aka just "ASP.NET"). Many web developers have been giving a lot of attention to other web frameworks out there (Ruby on Rails, Django) which have embraced the MVC (Model-View-Controller) application pattern, and if you’re one of those developers, or even if you’re just curious, this book is for you.
MVC allows for (buzzword alert!) a "greater separation of concerns" between components in your application. The book goes into the ramifications of this, but if it had to be said it in a quick sentence: ASP.NET MVC is ASP.NET Unplugged. ASP.NET MVC is a tinkerer’s framework that gives you very fine-grained control over your HTML and Javascript, as well as complete control over the programmatic flow of your application.
Rob Conery works at Microsoft on the ASP.NET team. He is the creator of SubSonic and was the chief architect of the Commerce Starter Kit (a free, Open Source eCommerce platform for .NET). He lives in Kauai, Hawaii, with his wife and two daughters (Maddy and Ruby).
Scott Guthrie is corporate vice president of Microsoft’s .NET Developer Division, where he runs the development teams responsible for delivering Microsoft Visual Studio developer tools and Microsoft .NET Framework technologies for building client and Web applications. A founding member of the .NET project, Guthrie has played a key role in the design and development of Visual Studio and the .NET Framework since 1999. Guthrie is also responsible for Microsoft’s web server platform and development tools teams. He has also more recently driven the development of Silverlight — a cross browser, cross platform plug-in for delivering next generation media experiences and rich Internet applications for the Web. Today, Guthrie directly manages the development teams that build the Common Language Runtime (CLR), ASP.NET, Silverlight, Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), IIS, Commerce Server, and the Visual Studio Tools for web, client, and Silverlight development. Guthrie graduated with a degree in computer science from Duke University.
Phil Haack is a senior program manager with the ASP.NET team working on the ASP.NET MVC project. Prior to joining Microsoft, Phil worked as a product manager for a code search engine, a dev manager for an online gaming company, and a senior architect for a popular Spanish language television network, among other crazy pursuits. As a code junkie, Phil Haack loves to craft software. Not only does he enjoy writing software, but he also enjoys writing about software and software management on his blog, http://haacked.com. In his spare time, Phil contributes to various Open Source projects and is the founder of the Subtext blog engine project, which is undergoing a rewrite, using ASP.NET MVC, of course.
Scott Hanselman works for Microsoft as a principal program manager in the Developer Division, aiming to spread the good word about developing software, most often on the Microsoft stack. Before this, he worked in eFinance for 6+ years and before that he was a principal consultant and a Microsoft Partner for nearly 7 years. He was also involved in a few things like the MVP and RD programs and will speak about computers (and other passions) whenever someone will listen to him. He blogs at www.hanselman.com and podcasts at www.hanselminutes.com and contributes to sites like www.asp.net, www.windowsclient.net, and www.silverlight.net. You can also fi nd him on Twitter, far too often.
